The moors provide a staggering wealth of sensory inspiration. There is the visual poetry of purple heather and bright yellow gorse, but the true magic lies in the air itself: the scent of peaty, rain-soaked earth, moss-cloaked stones, and the sharp, ozonic chill of an approaching storm.Beyond the wilderness lies the atmospheric indoor world of the Heights and Thrushcross Grange: the smoldering woodsmoke of a centuries-old hearth, the bitterness of kitchen herbs, aged tobacco, and the sweet, golden comfort of honey and oats.If you've ever wished to carry the essence of the moors with you, I've curated a list of 12 niche and indie fragrances that capture the very heart of the Brontë sisters' world. From photorealistic rain to gothic smoke, here are the scents that will make you feel as though you've stepped directly into the mist: (Savannah)
A letter sent to the Craven Herald in 1914 shed light on author Charlotte Bronte's links with Craven. It also revealed some other fascinating snippets, writes Lesley Tate.Novelist Charlotte Bronte spent a short time as a governess for a family at Stone Gappe, on the Skipton side of Lothersdale.And 112 years ago, a "correspondent" for the Craven Herald wrote of her connections with Craven and her apparent dislike of children.Charlotte, the eldest of the three Bronte sisters who survived into adulthood, lived at Haworth where she wrote her masterpiece, Jane Eyre, under the name of Currer Bell.Trained as a teacher, she spent a few years, between 1839 and 1841 as a governess, including to the Sidgwick family at their summer resident, Stone Gappe in Lothersdale.Charlotte was employed by the Sidgwicks in 1839, but did not take kindly to children, according to the Herald of 1914.On June 8, 1839 in a letter to her sister, Emily, she wrote: "The country, the house and the grounds are divine. . . The children are constantly with me, and more riotous, perverse, unmanageable cubs never grew."The Herald's correspondent of June, 26, 1914, a few weeks before Europe was plunged into war, wondered what Charlotte would have thought of the modern "enfante terrible"."Surely, most children answer to her description at some period of their lives, and is it not only healthy that they should?" they asked.Charlotte, who stayed for just a month at Stone Gappe before moving on, wrote in the same letter to her sister about Mr Sidgwick."Mr Sidgwick walked out with the children, and I had orders to follow a little behind."As he strolled on through the fields with his magnificent Newfoundland dog at his side, he looked very like what a frank, wealthy, Conservative gentleman ought to be. He spoke freely and unaffectedly to the people he met, and though he indulged his children, and allowed them to tease himself far too much, he would not suffer them grossly to insult others."It may be that Mr Sidgwick was the inspiration for Edward Rochester in Jane Eyre, published in 1847. Mr Rochester, who employed the young Jane as his governess, also had a large Newfoundland dog.It has also been suggested that one of the Sidgwick's children, John, who at one time threw a bible at Charlotte, was the inspiration for John Reed, who in Jane Eyre, throws a book at the young Jane, his step-sister.The Herald pointed out Charlotte's use of the word Conservative, and explained it was then almost a new word when applied to politics. "The good old word 'Tory' is now only used as a catchphrase by our political opponents, " said the correspondent, who left readers in no mistake as to their political leanings.Charlotte appeared to have little success as a governess, the correspondent continued, passing from post to post very rapidly.Another sister, Annie Bronte, wrote in her diary: "Charlotte has left Mrs Wooler's, been a governess at Mrs Sidgwick's, left her, and gone to Mrs White's". The extract was dated 1841, which, bearing in mind Charlotte was born in 1816, showed that she had been a governess with at least three families before she was 25-years-old.Charlotte wrote under the name of Currer Bell, and there were two popular theories about the origins of her pseudonym.One was that she had been inspired by Currer Hall, near Beamsley. But the Herald's correspondent favoured a different theory. "It is more probable that it was then in honour of the family of Currer, who then lived at Kildwick Hall. The Currers possessed a magnificent library, the greater part of which is now at Eshton Hall, " said the correspondent.There was also connection to a former headmaster of Skipton Grammar School, a Dr Cartman, who was described as a "great friend" of Charlotte's father, Patrick Bronte.A letter from Charlotte written when she was in London in June, 1851, to her father begins: "Dear Papa - I am glad to hear that you continue in pretty good health, and that Mr Cartman came to help you on Sunday."The Rev Patrick Bronte died in June, 1861 and the Bradford Review in describing the funeral at Haworth, mentions that Dr Cartman, of Skipton, was one of the bearers.The Craven Herald of June, 1853, which was then a monthly publication, described the consecration of St Mary's Church, Embsay, in which the name of the Rev A B Nicholls was included. Mr Nicholls, then curate to Patrick Bronte at Haworth, was eventually to be married to Charlotte, but according to the Herald at the time, it was not a relationship approved of by Charlotte's father."It was in December, 1852, that Mr Nicholls proposed to Charlotte, " said the correspondent."Her father, who appears to have been of a violent temper, would not hear of the match. His relations with Nicholls afterwards became so strained that the latter had no alternative but to leave."Mr Nicholls departed Haworth in May, 1853 - some ten days after the consecration of Embsay Church."It is now a matter of history that Charlotte eventually married Mr Nicholls, who survived her by many years, " said the correspondent, who writing a 100 years ago, added he had died just a few years earlier. Mr Nicholls left his portrait of Charlotte to the National Portrait Gallery, London. (Lesley Tate)
Back in the village, stop by Harrington’s butcher and deli for what locals say are “the best quiches this side of Manchester,” or enjoy a pint at The George, the 16th-century inn where a young Charlotte Brontë once stayed and found inspiration for Jane Eyre. (Vaishnavi Pandey)
A curlew conservation campaigner will spread his wings across Yorkshire's Three Peaks on Sunday for his latest fundraising challenge.Matt Trevelyan will attempt to scale Pen-y-ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough in under 12 hours - dressed as his feathered friend Cathy the Curlew - a 10ft (3m) long home-made costume.Trevelyan will be joined by his partner Claire, who will bring a touch of romance to the trek as Cathy's curlew companion Heathcliff. (Samantha Whelanand and Georgey Spanswick)
And even if they get it wrong like Emerald Fennell's heavy breathing adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's Wuthering Heights, at least they tried. (Kaveree Bamzai)
Sushil Ghimire, Balkumari College, Chitwan, NepalMindscape: A Journal of English & Cultural Studies, 4(1), 107–116This study examines Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1848) and Parijat’s Blue Mimosa (1965), two debut novels written more than a century apart, in different worlds, yet connected by a shared portrayal of women’s suffering under patriarchal authority. The research explores how Catherine Earnshaw and Sakambari embody experiences of oppression, discrimination, and premature tragedy as consequences of deeply rooted gender hierarchies. The study adopts a qualitative approach, guided specifically by de Beauvoir’s concept of woman as the “Other” in The Second Sex (1949). According to de Beauvoir, patriarchal societies construct women as secondary, subordinate beings defined in relation to men. Applying this framework, the analysis explores how Brontë and Parijat represent their heroines as trapped in gendered hierarchies yet simultaneously striving for selfhood and autonomy. The findings reveal that although Brontë was writing in nineteenth-century England and Parijat in twentieth-century Nepal, both texts depict strikingly similar patterns of female marginalization, particularly within family structures. Catherine and Sakambari resist patriarchal expectations in distinct ways-Catherine by questioning marital conformity and Sakambari by refusing to conform to prescriptive feminine norms-thereby asserting women’s agency while highlighting the universality of patriarchal oppression. By situating Wuthering Heights and Blue Mimosa in a cross-cultural and transnational dialogue, this study contributes to comparative feminist literary scholarship. It demonstrates how women writers, despite temporal and spatial distance, articulate parallel experiences of oppression and resistance, affirming the role of literature as a powerful medium for feminist critique and consciousness.
Asst. Lect. Mohsin Kamil Shlaka, Imam Al-Kadhum College I.K.CWasit Journal for Human Sciences, 22(1), 1363-1352.This study focuses on the central role of the natural environment, particularly harsh weather and storms. It reveals how nature in the novel embodies an active force that shapes characters' emotions and choices, reflects their inner conflicts, and sustains a constant tension between the human and natural worlds. From this perspective, Brontë offers an early vision of modern environmental thought by highlighting the profound connection between human experience and the surrounding environment.The research methodology employs a descriptive-analytical approach using textual analysis within an eco-critical framework. The procedures include a meticulous reading of the novel to extract natural symbols, environmental allusions, and images of the relationship between humanity and nature, followed by analysis in accordance with the principles of ecocriticism. This textual analysis and the ecocritical framework aim to provide a deeper understanding of the environment's role in shaping the narrative discourse and the characters' psychology.
In one survey, the average American felt that they used “just 37 percent of the information they learn in school.” Some of the information that Americans found “most useless” included the Pythagorean theorem, the number pi and social activities like making paper snowflakes. Respondents expressed a desire for more practical instruction, such as how to file taxes or perform car maintenance. (...)When a student is forced to write an essay about “Jane Eyre,” they are really practicing writing a persuasive argument and articulating their thoughts into words, which is useful in law, business and everyday conversation. (Maria Krylova)
Now, this film was never supposed to be a remake or a direct adaptation of the novel, and the film’s director made that clear in interviews while explaining that is why the title remains in quotes. She has stated that it is how she remembers the book from the first time she read it as a teenager. While I can appreciate that this is how her teenage self read the book, even calling this an interpretation is a disservice to the original story. Emily Brontë is rolling in her grave.Despite my qualms with the film from a literary standpoint, I actually enjoyed it. Cinematically, it is a beautifully produced film. It is visually pleasing to watch, with intricate set designs such as the walls in Catherine’s room — which were modeled after Margot Robbie’s skin and included moles, veins and even hair. The costumes and hair for this piece, while albeit not the most historically accurate, are stunning and the overall attention to detail is impressive. (Jeni Nance)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte BrontëA pioneering feminist narrative, Jane Eyre blends romance, mystery, and emotional independence in a deeply character-driven story. (Dikshant Sharma)
From windswept cheeks to just-bitten lips; the runways are overtaken by yearning. (...)The inspiration: Wuthering Heights, romance-novel yearning, feral, flushed skin, wind-beaten cheeksAs seen at: Chanel, Chloe, Ann Demeulemeester, Ermanno Scervino, and Simone RochaWhen we first saw butt-grazing princess hair at the 2024 Met Gala, we were inclined to think it was a fleeting phase. But it seems that the sighting was only the beginning of what would be a resurgence of all things romantic. In 2026, romance makes a triumphant return to the runways, red carpets, TV and film, with this year’s most heart-racing film, Wuthering Heights, based on Emily Brontë’s tragic romance novel, sweeping the world up in a surge of skin-flushing romance. Dubbed the ‘year of yearning’, it seems that the runways’ response to the world’s current state of conflict and war is one of unadulterated displays of love and feral human emotion, sparking a romance resurgence that can only be described as utterly joyful. (Nokubonga Thusi)
The Coniston Hotel & Spa has a touch of Wuthering Heights magic from the scenic hills and offers some extra thrills onsite as well...After watching Wuthering Heights and dreaming about being swept into the Dales in Jacob Elordi's arms, a staycation to the Yorkshire Dales suddenly seemed very appealing. Except, of course, there was no Jacob Elordi (no shade to my boyfriend), and my stay was perhaps a little more "indoorsy" than running around the hills like Cathy. However, the Coniston Hotel & Spa did offer a sprinkle of Wuthering Heights magic with its hilly backdrop and moody, Gothic charm... (Iona MacRobert)
Sprinkles of Wuthering Heights magic... ok. Whatever.
In contemporary popular discourse, Heathcliff and Catherine’s relationship is viewed as toxic and codependent, but deeper psychoanalytic interpretations of their behaviour become critical in studying the horrific dimensions of human attachment and desire. The themes of power, psychological disintegration and self-destructive trauma imbued in the narrative demand deeper engagement because while the characters are flawed to the point of appearing villainous, they are poignant for the fate that meets them in the end.In this, Catherine emerges as perhaps one of the most haunting Victorian heroines, progressing from a wild and untamed young woman, to an obsessive and reprehensible heroine – an antithesis to an idealised Victorian lady – finally transmuting into a spectral apparition after her death. Her character arc resists any closure as her long sickness and prolonged suffering do not end in death, but assume unheimlich proportions as she comes back to haunt Heathcliff, disturbing the ontological boundaries between life and death.Indeed, in the liminal space between life and death, Catherine is shown to be clinging to the past and then suffering endlessly due to it. Her despair, feelings of guilt and entrapment, progressive physical disintegration take on physical symptoms of fevers and anorexia that slowly wither her away. She becomes a tragic Gothic heroine not only for what happens to her in her dysfunctional relationships, but also for her emotional and sexual weaknesses that attenuate her in the end.For this reason, Catherine’s physical and emotional deterioration needs to be studied as a product of a distinctly Victorian trend and aesthetic that valorised and eroticised weakness and suffering in women. She physically embodies the cultural idea of the “consumptive chic” who is fevered, emaciated and dying, as she becomes both victim and perpetrator – the haunted and the haunting.
A video of The Huffington Post, with some AI-generated deep dives explores the Charlotte Brontë "dislike" of Jane Austen's prose. The House of Brontë publishes a video on Heathcliff, man or monster? The Brontë Sisters UK makes a graveyard exploration in Haworth that reads the stones of ordinary villagers who shared their world with the Brontës — tracing stories of loss, scandal, and survival in nineteenth-century Yorkshire.
Victoria Miro Gallery16 Wharf Road, London N1 7RW16 April–23 May 2026Victoria Miro is delighted to present a major exhibition of drawings and works on paper by Paula Rego (1935–2022). The most comprehensive exhibition of Rego’s drawings to date, Story Line shines new light on Rego’s evolving use of line in media from pen and ink to pastel, conté, charcoal and pencil, and how it was driven by her unique approach to storytelling throughout her life. The exhibition is accompanied by a new book written by the artist’s son, Nick Willing.Paula Rego considered herself first and foremost a ‘drawrer’ (her word). From political protest to personal introspection, activism to domestic power games, subversive humour to challenging family relationships, it was through drawing that she understood herself and the world around her, discovering ways of expressing complex ideas through a single image.The works on show vary from intimate drawings which have never been exhibited before to studies for some of Rego’s most recognisable paintings. These are accompanied by notes, letters, sketchbooks, photographs and other archival material from throughout Rego’s life – among myriad rarities is a drawing Rego made when she was nine years old of her grandmother, while the exhibition concludes with works including a drawing she made of her own granddaughter.
Study for Jane Eyre, 2002. Pencil on paper 42 x 29.7 cm 16 1/2 x 11 3/4 inJane Eyre, 2002 Pastel on paper 80 x 57 cm 31 1/2 x 22 1/2 in (in the picture)Young Mr Rochester, 2000 Pastel on paper mounted on aluminium 69 x 49.5 cm 27 1/8 x 19 1/2 inStudy for Wide Sargasso Sea, 1991 Graphite on paper 42 x 29.7 cm 16 1/2 x 11 3/4 in
The Brontë Birthplace in Thornton is giving free admission to anyone named Charlotte on Saturday, April 25 and Sunday, April 26, in celebration of Charlotte Brontë’s 210th birthday.Charlotte Brontë, author of Jane Eyre, Shirley, Villette and The Professor, was born at the house on Market Street on April 21.Thomas Haigh, audience development and marketing lead at the Brontë Birthplace, said: "It was here in this very house that Charlotte’s story began, long before Jane Eyre and long before her name became famous across the world."We want to mark this special day by doing something a bit unexpected."We would love to get as many Charlottes as possible to step inside the place where her life began and to be part of a shared, living tribute to her legacy."The house will be open from 11am to 4pm, with visitors invited to explore the museum, bring family members, and enjoy the on-site café.Visitors will also be entered into a prize draw to stay in Charlotte’s room, which is now an Airbnb. (Harry Williams)
One morning in early June, 1850, Charlotte Brontë finally met her literary hero, William Makepeace Thackeray. To do so, the 4ft 8in writer - recently unmasked as Currer Bell, the author of Jane Eyre, published in 1847 - chose to wear her “power gown”, a vibrant blue-and-white floral print dress made in a fine alpaca fabric woven in her native Yorkshire.The meeting took place in the drawing room of her publisher George Smith. Thackeray was impressed, later recalling: “New to the London world, she entered it with an independent, indomitable spirit of her own.”From experience, Charlotte knew that appearance and favourable first impressions mattered. She had been stung by criticism when she joined the stylish young ladies of Roe Head School in Mirfield in 1931, told that she was “very ugly” by one pupil, Mary Taylor, who later described her as wearing “very old-fashioned clothes, and looking very cold and miserable”.A surviving drawing by Charlotte, of a young woman wearing a highly fashionable, early 1930s-style puff-sleeved gown, shows how much she had noticed and been influenced by the Roe Head girls.This is highlighted by historian and costume consultant Eleanor Houghton, whose new book, Charlotte Brontë’s Life Through Clothes, examines how surviving pieces from the author’s wardrobe give remarkable insight into her experience, her feelings and her work.The book is illustrated by Eleanor’s own beautiful drawings which capture the detail of the dresses, shawls, bonnets, boots, combs, corsets and more.Charlotte made her own clothes, with housekeeper Martha Brown, using fabrics from Yorkshire mills. The gown that later became known as the “Thackeray Dress” was made in a cloth called Alpaca Orleans, a blend of alpaca and cotton, woven by Sir Titus Salt who had mills in Bradford just nine miles from Haworth (Salts Mill in Saltaire opened later in 1953).ir Titus was a fabric pioneer, and managed to transform fine alpaca fleece into a lustrous but hardwearing fabric that quickly became a rival to silk. Printed (probably in Accrington) in a vibrant blue and white pattern of leaves and flowers, Charlotte bought the fabric around 1848 - and the blues retain their bright quality to this day.Charlotte left most of her wardrobe to her husband, Arthur Bell Nichols, and some also to Martha. Pieces were acquired by fans down the years, but many found their way home to the Brontë Parsonage Museum at Haworth, which now looks after around 150 items.The Thackeray dress was given to Martha’s niece, who made significant alterations, adding a brown collar and removing fabric from its full skirt.Charlotte’s clothing reveals a woman more body and fashion-conscious than suspected. In Brussels, she bought a corset measuring just 18.5 inches around the waist. It became a staple, and later caused concern to her publisher George Smith. Eleanor Houghton writes: “Nearly forty years after her death, still impacted by what he had seen, Smith told his friend, the novelist George Gissing, that Charlotte was ‘very vain of her narrow waist … and laced herself so tight as to injure herself’.”Pointing out that tight lacing at the time was the practice of a minority of women, Eleanor suggests that Charlotte, always conscious of her perceived lack of beauty, was “deliberately and blatantly exhibiting her femininity”. The corset might also have served as an armour as she sought strength and protection while nursing a heart broken by her unrequited love for M Heger in Brussels.On display now at the Brontë Parsonage is a paisley print dress Charlotte wore in the 1840s, exotic and vibrant in shades of duck egg blue, mint, red and black. One Haworth resident, who recalled seeing them many times in the village, said: “I don’t know that I ever saw them in owt but print - I’ve heard it said they were pinched - but it was a nice print … They looked grand.”Born on April 21, 1816, this Tuesday marks the 210th anniversary of Charlotte Brontë birth. The Brontë Parsonage Museum and the nearby Brontë Birthplace in Thornton are hosting special events, including performances and talks.Eleanor has been a consultant for many TV and film historical dramas including the BBC’s To Walk Invisible, written and directed by Sally Wainwright, and Frances O’Connor’s 2023 biopic, Emily.In 2022, in collaboration with the Brontë Parsonage Museum, she curated a large exhibition of Charlotte’s surviving wardrobe. “The museum has become a second home. The staff have been endlessly patient and helpful and always willing to clamber to the back of the Bonnell Store or to upend the library in search of a particular garment or record,” she says.“I considered why Charlotte had chosen each piece, what it revealed of her taste, the challenges she faced, and the sartorial conventions and codes of 19th‑century society.”She traced how and where the clothes were worn, how they were changed, and how they shaped Charlotte’s daily experience, studying them alongside letters and diaries, to uncover a rich, complex picture of Charlotte and her ever-changing world.“The village’s surviving mills and weavers’ cottages are reminders, too, that Charlotte lived in a landscape shaped by the Industrial Revolution and by the textile economy that produced so many of the fabrics in her wardrobe.“These gowns, bonnets, bags, and boots have presented to us a very different Charlotte Brontë,” she says. “She is a woman who is more rounded, more three-dimensional and braver, bolder, and yet somehow more vulnerable. She is less isolated and more globalised. She is more fashion-conscious and defies long-held preconceptions.“She shows herself to be very self-critical, but also provocative and tenacious. By hearing the clothes’ testimonies, we encounter Charlotte not simply as a writer but as a real, thinking, feeling, breathing woman.“Yet these clothes reveal more than Charlotte alone. They bring the world she inhabited vividly into view — nineteenth-century Yorkshire, with its rugged moors and sprawling villages; the networks of makers, merchants, and markets; the drive and creativity of industrial innovation; and the global routes that brought fabrics, fibres and influences from France, Peru, Mexico, Canada, and the United States to a little parsonage in the West Riding."They allow us to see how Charlotte navigated her social and material world, balancing expectation, personal comfort, and self-expression — and in doing so, they let us step closer to the woman behind Jane Eyre, behind Lucy Snowe, and to see beyond them to the life she really lived. (Stephanie Smith)
A lost manuscript which had been hidden for more than a century has uncovered a teenage Charlotte Brontë's fascination with "very naughty" Parisian society.The Journal of a Frenchman was the missing part of a series of The Young Men's Magazine, which Brontë edited and wrote aged 14.It belongs to the Brontë Parsonage Museum and has been analysed for the first time by the University of Chester's Professor Deborah Wynne, who said she was honoured to be chosen.On reading the magazine Wynne said she discovered aspects to Charlotte Brontë she "hadn't really encountered before"."It's written as though Charlotte herself is a French young man who's a dandy. He gets drunk and disorderly."So you've got this Yorkshire clergyman's daughter, who seems so respectable, but she seems to know all about being drunk and disorderly in Paris in this journal entry."And you realise she had this sense of humour, which doesn't always come out in quite the same raucous way in her novels."She's more ladylike in the way she writes in her novels, whereas she gave herself this freedom to write as a man and really went to town with that," she said.In 2019, the magazine was discovered and purchased by the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, where the sisters lived and wrote their novels, such as Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.The museum had all other issues of The Young Men's Magazine and bought the September 1830 issue when it appeared in a Parisian auction house.The museum set up a fundraising campaign, which Wynne donated to, and it returned to Haworth where it has now been examined and preserved.Six scholars were invited to analyse the work the results of which were published in The Journal of the Brontë Society last year.Wynne said discovering the manuscript was "fitting together this piece into a jigsaw"."It was an amazing experience to see that manuscript and know it had been hidden away for over a century," she said."To know I was the first person to actually push all of that jigsaw together, as it were, it was really exciting. So it's been one of the best projects I've ever worked on."She said themes in the manuscript reappear in Brontë's later more well-known works, such as Jane Eyre and Villette."She really presents the aristocratic characters in France negatively. And later in her novels, a lot of the aristocratic characters are presented negatively too," she said."So you can sort of see how she's already a little bit disapproving of her Frenchman. And in the end, he loses all of his money and he becomes a tavern keeper. And he says he's much happier drawing pints for the people who come into his tavern."There is this sense that France is a very naughty sort of place. It's a place where things go on that don't in Yorkshire parsonages."Measuring just 3cm by 6cm the magazine is part of a series of works the Brontë children wrote on scraps of paper because of the high cost of paper in the Victorian era.Principal curator at the Brontë Parsonage, Ann Dinsdale, explained the little manuscripts were meant to look like printed books and magazines produced at the time."These tiny little books have got title pages, they've got contents pages, they contain all the kinds of stories, reviews, poetry that you'd expect to find in Blackwood's magazine."Some of them have even got advertisements in the back. So these were the first publications by the Brontës really."She said the children would have created them using quill pens."It would have taken a fair amount of practise to kind of devise this almost sort of italicised style of writing that they developed for the little books," she said."It became like a secret code among the siblings because they must have realised that if their father or their aunt came across any of these tiny manuscripts they wouldn't have been able to read them."Which is probably quite a good thing because some of the content is not the kind of thing you would expect from the minister's children." (Grace Wood)
Alongside the biblical references are literary greats: the figure of Jane Eyre, less straightened than sturdy, as well as the young and handsome Mr Rochester; Orpheus and the maenads, wild and free; Germaine Greer sitting with her knees apart and the soles of her feet together. (Chloë Ashby)
Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar is weighing in on Jacob Elordi’s rapid rise and questioning whether the actor has yet proven his full range. [...]Almodóvar acknowledged Elordi’s growing star power, saying he believes the Australian actor is “without doubt” on track to become a major star. Still, he admitted he remains uncertain about how to define him, raising the question of whether Elordi is primarily a sex symbol or a performer with deeper dramatic range.“I’ve been wondering whether he’s just a sex symbol or a respected actor,” Almodóvar said, adding that he would need to see Elordi in a role that demands more before reaching a clear conclusion.The director also critiqued some of Elordi’s recent projects, arguing that they do not fully showcase the actor’s abilities. He pointed to “Wuthering Heights” and “Frankenstein,” suggesting the material limits the opportunity for more layered performances. Almodóvar candidly characterized “Wuthering Heights” as “very bad,” while noting that neither Elordi nor his co-star Margot Robbie were to blame. (Kennedy French)
3 Wuthering HeightsWhere? Yorkshire DalesYorkshire’s raw, wild, moody moors are as much a character in Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel as Cathy and Heathcliff. So where else could filming for Emerald Fennell’s movie version take place? The production used spots around rippling Swaledale, one of the loveliest and least-touched valleys in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Scenes were shot amid Low Row’s comely stone cottages and in the untamed moors above, around Old Gang Smelt Mill and Surrender Bridge – which, incidentally, also starred in the opening credits of All Creatures Great and Small. There’s great walking country all around. (Sarah Baxter)
Ever watched a movie and wondered what the main character would smell like? [...] Margot Robbie’s Barbie would go for a sugary pink gourmand scent, while her Catherine Earnshaw in Wuthering Heights would reek of mud, rain and zero closure. (Kritika Kapoor)
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In the British Library’s Treasures Collection, I recently discovered a number of original manuscripts, including those of Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre and Virginia Woolf.Looking at the physical pages, I was struck by how handwriting itself can also hint at a person’s personality and character, that digital texts by comparison can sometimes be inhibiting as a method of expression.The manuscripts gave the impression of “working pages”, with parts of sentences crossed out, words inserted and phrasing adjusted.It reminded me of the care involved with crafting a manuscript or original document – first in setting the words down on the page, second in perfecting them, and third in the process of editing and eliminating to reach an improved overall effect.Skipping the written word in favour of digital convenience may quietly limit both our creativity and the quality of our work. The slower pace of handwriting gives us space to consider our words more carefully, refining both clarity and intent as we go. (Louise Janovsky)
The 10th novel by Perth-based Natasha Lester boldly blends the beloved story of Jane Eyre with the vibrant history of Hollywood from the 1950s to the 1970s. After the death of her parents, young Aria Jones is sent to live with her reclusive starlet aunt at the Chateau Marmont, a hotel on Hollywood Boulevard with a notorious reputation. After learning a secret that will haunt her childhood, Aria finds solace and anonymity in the hotel's library. When the hotel is sold to a mysterious rock star and his troubled daughter, Aria has the opportunity to be much more than invisible.
Fri 17 Apr, 7:30pmJoin us for this special online event with Mayukh Sen, author of Love, Queenie: Merle Oberon, Hollywood’s First South Asian Star. We will be delving into the life of Merle Oberon who famously portrayed Catherine Earnshaw in William Wyler’s 1939 adaptation of Wuthering Heights and learning how this Hollywood legend’s life was just as dramatic as Emily Brontë’s novel.Mayukh’s biography of Oberon is the first in over 40 years and is a finalist for the 2025 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography. Mayukh is a 2026 United States Artists Fellow, and he teaches film and television journalism at New York University. In a past professional life, he was the James Beard Award-winning author of Taste Makers (2021).
The saving grace of this film, however, is the gorgeous cinematography. Each shot is picturesque, which is characteristic of Fennell’s previous films Saltburn and Promising Young Woman.Each scene is heavily considered, and the setting captures the gothic aesthetic of the original novel. Catherine’s wedding scene is haunting, with moving tulle and muted colors. Fog fills several scenes and leaves a lasting impression of mystery and the cold world of Wuthering Heights.Overall, this film is beautiful to look at. However, it could have stood to have more time in the writing room. In fact, it may have benefited if the film had not been loosely inspired by Wuthering Heights. Many of the references hold the film back, and it could have made a lasting impression as its own unique narrative. (Sky Briggs)
The film is “based” on the 1847 novel (which I finally read) in the same way Monty Python’s “Life of Brian” is based on Scripture, and “travesty” is too anodyne a word to describe what director Emerald Fennell did to poor Emily Brontë’s creation. (Msgr. Richard Antall)
by Chloe MillerDigital Literature Review, 13(1), 115–129. https://doi.org/10.33043/DLR.13.1.115-129This essay explores space as a narrative presence in literature, further expressed through film, and examines how settings act as living presences that shape the inner worlds and conflicts of their characters. In Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and Andrea Arnold’s film adaptation, the domestic spaces of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange embody and construct identity, which is reinforced or challenged by the moor. Perspectives from spatiality like bell hooks’s “The Margin as a Space of Radical Openness,” Michel Foucalt’s concept of heterotopia and Gaston Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space explain how environments reflect psychological depth, social position, and emotional confinement. The contrast between the rugged Heights and the refined Grange reflect oppositions of passion and civility, which are central to characterization. Arnold’s adaptation reinterprets these spatial dynamics through a realist view that utilizes physical texture, weather, and isolation.
Before you descend to the comments/clutter up my mentions about this, some context for what kind of cultural consumer I am: I would so much rather see some insane-concept Shakespeare than the classical-dress one. Which leads me to put a clarifying question to you, dear reader: what are you looking for in an adaptation? Are you looking for a one-to-one analogue? By that metric, The Shining is inarguably a terrible adaptation—but as I’ve said elsewhere and as I’m sure many would agree, Kubrick’s film is a great adaptation because it does a spectacular job adapting its source material, which is to say taking the original and transmuting it into something new, something different, and yet something that nevertheless feels of-a-piece. So it is with Fennell’s film! (Although, to be clear: I’m not here to tell you Wuthering Heights is an equivalent piece of film-making—it isn’t.)There was a lot of flack being flung at this Heights for being all vibes, but honestly, why not do that with an adaptation? Adapting a classic novel is always going to be a risk, because generations of people have read it and culturally it has become something everyone has a vague opinion about—so you’re always going to have people who are mad that it didn’t include X thing that they really cared deeply about.And Emily Brontë has always been the coolest (slash “weirdest“) of the Brontë sisters, the one onto whom you can project the most—and whose single book was resolutely cooler, sexier, stranger than the combined works of either of her sisters. So why not make a sumptuous Gothic feast of a film lensed through a Millennial’s memories of the covers of supermarket-checkout-line bodice-rippers they maybe wanted to be reading instead when they were first assigned the Brontës?Give me this kind of weirdo interpretation over yet-another-stuffy-period-piece any day! I’m going to remember some of the images from this film forever (the leeches! the houses, both of them! the very-Millay-esque piles of gin bottles!) while other aspects fade entirely—which is, funnily enough, exactly what has happened to me with the actual novel. (Drew Broussard)
A brand new production of Jane Eyre, based on Sally Cookson, Mike Akers and the original company's adaptation of the Charlotte Brontë novel, will come to the Mercury Theatre Colchester in September.Jane Eyre will be directed by Lily Dyble as a result of her winning the 2025 Royal Theatrical Support Trust Sir Peter Hall Director Award.The co-production, supported by a grant from the RTST, will premiere at the Mercury Theatre from 26 September to 10 October, before touring to Rose Theatre from 13 to 24 October, Northern Stage from 3 to 7 November and Storyhouse from 10 to 21 November. [...]Director, Lily Dyble says, “What I see at the heart of this story is courage in the face of the unknown. Jane Eyre reminds us of the risk and enormity of love, but also how uncertainty can breed hope, as well as fear; that we can choose to fiercely love each other and ourselves, even within chaos, and even when our old lives have been lost to the fire. I'm thrilled to be bringing Jane's story to audiences across England this autumn, with the support of four wonderful venues and the RTST.”Artistic Director of Mercury Theatre, Natasha Rickman says, “We are absolutely delighted to be working with Lily Dyble, who is a director of real vision and talent. We are thrilled also to be co-producing this with our friends at the Rose, Storyhouse and Northern Stage, and to be collaborating with the brilliant RTST; the Sir Peter Hall Director Award spotlights so much extraordinary talent throughout their process each year, and it was a joy to meet so many brilliant artists. I cannot wait to see Lily's staging of this epic and gripping story and to share it with audiences across the country, alongside our co-producers.” (Stephi Wild)
There’s a certain pull to stories that take something familiar and rework it into something new. With The Chateau on Sunset, Natasha Lester has taken Jane Eyre and placed it inside one of Hollywood’s most infamous hotels, the Chateau Marmont. The result leans into the glamour of the era while exposing what sat behind it. [...]The idea did not begin in Los Angeles. It came to her on a train in Italy.“I was sitting on a train to Florence, thinking about books I’d enjoyed,” Lester says. “Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano was one, which is loosely based on Little Women. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver was another. Suddenly the idea popped into my head as I looked out at the Northern Italian countryside. What if I did something like that with one of my favourite books, Jane Eyre?”That moment shaped the direction of the novel. It also changed how she approached the story. She started with a literary foundation and asked what might happen if it unfolded in a place defined by fame, power and secrecy.Her connection to Jane Eyre runs deeper than admiration. It is tied to what she believes the original heroine never truly received.“Jane Eyre was a woman who yearned for liberty. She looked at the horizon and longed to go beyond it,” Lester says. “The ending is romantically satisfying, but she never really got what she most wanted. That didn’t seem fair.”That sense of unfinished business became central to the novel.“I wanted to write a story where Jane got both a romantically satisfying and a personally satisfying ending. An ending that such a great heroine deserved.”The Chateau Marmont plays a strong role in the story, and its presence came about unexpectedly.“I was struggling to find the voice of the story,” she says. “I started handwriting pieces just to see where my imagination would take me. In one of those, the Marmont took on a voice and a sense of itself. I loved it.”From there, the hotel developed into something that feels watchful, holding onto the secrets of the people who pass through it. That reflects the real history of the Marmont, long associated with excess and scandal.Researching Hollywood’s Golden Age revealed a version of the era that contrasts sharply with its polished image.“There was a lot of ugliness beneath the glamour,” Lester says. “Women were fighting every day against a very male-controlled studio system that wanted to take away their power.”That tension carries through the novel, particularly in how women were labelled, controlled and often silenced. Many of those stories were hidden or reframed at the time. (Emily Darlow)
No visit to the Peaks would be complete without a stop at the village of Hathersage, home to a heated open-air pool. It’s an idyllic village with a literacy legacy; its rugged landscapes inspired Jane Eyre (there’s even a Jane Eyre walking trail) (Jake Hall)
A plague of beetles have caused havoc for visitors flocking to the village made famous by classic novel turned current blockbuster Wuthering Heights. Swarms of the flying insects created mayhem when they descended on the picturesque village of Haworth where people travel from all over the world to visit the Parsonage where the Brontë sisters Emily, Charlotte and Anne lived.The aggressive beetles descended during last week’s warm weather converging on the mass of visitors making a homage to the historic West Yorkshire village, and now museum bosses and hospitality venues are bracing themselves for more summer swarms with warmer weather again on the horizon. According to one member of staff at the Parsonage the insects “came out of nowhere” on Wednesday lunchtime and were the worst he had ever experienced. He told people being as they queued outside the venue: “I was in the adjacent fields this morning and they were not there then, but suddenly around lunchtime they just appeared. There are lots of fields around so flies insects are not unusual but I’ve never known anything quite like this.”One visitor Amelie, 21, from Edinburgh told how she had been enjoying al fresco lunch with her family on a café on the main street when they were suddenly “bombarded.”She said: “We’d just found a lovely sunny spot and had just ordered our lunch when I spotted a beetle land on my drink glass. Then another landed, and another, and then I started feeling them on my neck, on my arms and on my legs. They were everywhere and by the time our meal arrived, we and everyone around us were swatting away like mad.“But it got even worse once we joined the queue for the Parsonage and was so bad at one stage we considered abandoning our trip. It was better once we got inside, but they had found their way inside everyone’s clothing and it was pretty horrible to be honest. We were still finding them hours after we left Haworth – they seemed pretty invincible bugs but at least they didn’t bite. I hope it’s not a sign of things to come this summer.”Katherine Hill, 53, from Leeds said: "It was such a beautiful spring day in one of my favourite places to visit. But the beetles caused mayhem, people were pulling them out of their shoes, their clothing, their hair and their ears. They were so small and there was just no escape - even inside the museum." (Paul Jeeves)
by Dong XiThe Explicator, 1–7. httsp://doi.org/10.1080/00144940.2026.2630258The red-room episode in Jane Eyre¹ has long been recognized as one of the novel's most disturbing scenes. Critical discussions have variously approached it as formative psychological trauma (Gilbert and Gubar 336–71), feminist "prison" imagery (Armstrong 59–95; Showalter 100–30), or Gothic spectacle (Milbank 140–57). These readings converge in treating the episode as an origin point whose significance lies in its psychological aftereffects. Within such interpretations, earlier confinement is the perfective and superseded past, and Jane's maturation gradually unfolds toward autonomy.²While these interpretations persuasively account for the red-room's psychological and symbolic force, the present article shifts the critical focus from what the episode signifies to how it temporally operates, arguing that the red-room functions not as a completed origin but as a grammar of unfinished time sustained and reproduced through syntax.³Jane Eyre repeatedly resists linear containment. The red-room is not a concluded episode safely lodged in the past. Instead, the novel continually reactivates the conditions of the red-room through grammatical structures that suspend temporal resolution. Across the novel, Brontë reproduces this temporal logic, recasting the red-room from a traumatic origin into a governing structure of unfinished time—what this article terms stillness.
After delivering an impressive $32.8 million domestic opening, Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi’s steamy romance went on to gross $84 million in North America. It currently ranks as the sixth-highest-grossing release of 2026 domestically, as per Box Office Mojo. Following its U.S. theatrical debut on February 13, the romantic drama effectively ended its North American run on Thursday (April 9), when it collected $8k across 58 locations. That said, the film is still playing in some international markets. [...]Milestone No.1 – $250 Million Worldwide TotalIn addition to its $84 million domestic haul, the film earned $156.4 million from overseas markets, which resulted in a worldwide total of $240.4 million. This means Wuthering Heights is still short of around $9.6 million to reach the $250 million worldwide benchmark. As it is already nearing the end of its ongoing run, it appears unlikely that it will be able to achieve this milestone.Wuthering Heights – Box Office SummaryNorth America: $84 millionInternational: $156.4 millionWorldwide: $240.4 millionMilestone No.2 – $50 Million Theatrical SurplusSince Wuthering Heights was made on an estimated production budget of $80 million, it needed to earn $200 million globally to break even at the box office, using the 2.5x multiplier rule. Based on this calculation, the film has generated a theatrical surplus of $40.4 million. However, reaching the $50 million theatrical surplus mark seems to be unlikely at this stage.Milestone No.3 – All-Time Top 1000 Domestic ChartTo break into the all-time top 1000 films at the domestic box office, Wuthering Heights needed to surpass Peter Pan’s $87.4 million North American total. To reach that milestone, it needs to bring in an additional $3.4 million domestically. However, since the film has effectively ended its original domestic run, it won’t be able to reach that target now. (Pranshu Awasthi)
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Brontë Birthplace EventsDate: Tuesday 14 April 2026 via Zoom at 18.30In 1842, a few years before becoming bestselling authors, Charlotte and Emily Brontë travelled to Brussels to improve their French. For Charlotte, her two years as a pupil and then teacher at the Pensionnat Heger were pivotal for her, both as a writer and personally. Life in a foreign city and the influence of her literature teacher Constantin Heger, for whom she developed something of an obsession, shaped her intellectually and emotionally and gave birth to two novels, Villette and The Professor. Drawing on Charlotte’s letters and novels, Helen MacEwan will look at her experiences in the Belgian capital -both positive and negative – and how these fed into her writings.Helen MacEwan is a retired translator and former teacher who has lived in Brussels for the last 20 years. Shortly after moving to the Belgian capital, she re-read Villette and became fascinated in Charlotte and Emily’s time in the city and the novels that came out of it. Helen is the author of The Brontës in Brussels and of Through Belgian Eyes: Charlotte Brontë’s Troubled Brussels Legacy. She has also written the life of Winifred Gérin, the renowned Brontë biographer. Her book Down the Belliard Steps: Discovering the Brontës in Brussels recounts her adventures as founder of the Brussels Brontë Group, which has been promoting interest in the Brontës through talks and guided walks since 2006.
Wuthering Heights succumbs under the pressure of new releases and ends its theatrical run at the box office in North America after over a month [sic: nearly two months]. The film ended its theatrical run on its 8th Thursday as it lost its last few theatres in North America. The film is being played in a few markets overseas. [...]According to trade analyst Luiz Fernando‘s report, Wuthering Heights has concluded its box office journey at the North American box office. It grossed just 8k on its 8th and final Thursday over the last 58 theaters still playing it. The film’s domestic total reached $84 million, bringing its theatrical run to an end. Wuthering Heights is concluding its box-office run as 2026’s 6th-highest-grossing film domestically.The period drama starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi collected $156.4 million at the overseas box office. It is still running in a few overseas markets. Allied to the $84 million domestic cume, the movie’s worldwide collection stands at $240.4 million. It will end its global run below the $250 million milestone. It is still the 5th-highest-grossing film of 2026 and the highest-grossing romance drama of the year. [...]Box office summaryDomestic – $84.0 millionInternational – $156.4 millionWorldwide – $240.4 million (Esita Mallik)
Una pregunta propia de una página encrespada de Dostoyevski, de una maraña concebida por la más espesa de las Brontë. (Elisa Victoria) (Translation)
Kristianne KalataStudies in the Novel, Johns Hopkins University Press, Volume 58, Number 1, Spring 2026This essay reads Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley(1849) through the lens of queer narrative theory, positioning Brontë’s work as formative in developing the concept of the androgynous mind that was coined by S.T. Coleridge in Table Talk(1835) and deliberated upon by Virginia Woolf in A Room of One’s Own(1929). Through moments of hypothetical focalization, the novel disrupts gendered identities and social expectations, suggesting its author’s conscious efforts to occupy the androgynous mind and to consider the limits and possibilities of its application to embodied behaviors. Anticipating Woolf’s frustration over the limits of androgynous thinking in a society that values gendered embodiment, Brontë experiments with narration in ways that underscore the distinction between social and self-perceptions of gender, a distinction that plays out not only at the levels of author, narrator, and character, but also in past and present readers’ reviews of the text.
4. Wuthering HeightsEmerald Fennell's fearless reinvention of Emily Brontë's 1847 novel is not for Brontë purists, but it is an exhilarating take on the book and a striking example of Fennell's typical artistry and daring. Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi are fiery as Cathy and Heathcliff, the classic lovers made for each other but separated by class. Their connection is at once frankly sexual, romantic and caustic in the cruelty they often display toward each other. With that cruelty, Fennell restores the vehemence often overlooked in Brontë adaptations. Departing from prettified period pieces, the film's visual style is an enticing kaleidoscope of colour and fashion. Fennell drops in some comic moments, and at times dares to be over the top (Heathcliff on horseback, Elordi's bad wig flying in the wind) but its excesses are a small price to pay for such ambition. However much Fennell toys with the details – and why not? the book still exists – she captures the essential enduring passion of Wuthering Heights and its class-bound time. (Caryn James)
The classic novel comes to life on the big screen once again, this time from Promising Young Woman and Saltburn director Emerald Fennell, and with Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in the lead roles. Fennell, an Academy Award winner for her work on Promising Young Woman, has both big fans and big detractors at this point—but her take her, while book purists haven't been thrilled, is a big, visually stunning epic romance. Robbie and Elordi are both up to the task as well, bringing a charged energy to roles that really need it. Alison Oliver, who recently shined on HBO's Task, is another major highlight in a supporting role. An original soundtrack from Charli XCX helps to set the anachronistic mood and feels like a real cherry on top. (Evan Romano)
Major improvements to a public footpath used by thousands of visitors every year have been completed in Haworth.The footpath, which links Weavers Hill car park with Main Street, had become uneven and hazardous but has now been tarmacked to provide a more accessible surface.Thousands of people visit Haworth every year from across the globe to walk in the footsteps of the Brontë sisters, who lived in the town in the early 19th Century.A Bradford Council spokesperson said: "This upgraded footpath strengthens an important link in the heart of Haworth, supporting a safer and more inclusive access for those who visit and enjoy this much-loved village."The path had become unsafe due to root damage from several trees, as well as debris and broken fencing that had started to encroach on to the path and the overhead trees, which were affected by Ash Dieback.Bradford Council removed the unsafe trees and collaborated with local allotment tenants and the tenant of the neighbouring paddock to clear the path's border creating a 5ft (1.5m) wide route.The work was paid for with money from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority's City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement. (Grace Wood)
He was born in 1825 and for most of his life lived in a cottage at Buckley Green, near Stanbury.His loom was in the room upstairs, as it had more windows and he needed as much light as possible to see when weaving. It was also where he slept, and the bed end almost rested against the loom.He bought his own warp, carried it home over his shoulder and set it up on the loom by tying each warp thread on to those on the previous one. Once a new warp had been ‘gated’, he would then prepare the weft. This was bought in hanks, and he wound it onto pirns to go in his shuttles.One day a young man called Albert Kay, from Nelson in Lancashire, called at Timmy Feather’s cottage in Buckley Green. An account of his visit was subsequently reported in the Nelson Leader.Timmy was then in his 80s and as he was the last handloom weaver in the district, had become something of a celebrity. People often called and regularly asked to see his handloom and watch him weave. Albert was no exception and Timmy invited him upstairs to look at the loom. However, it was Sunday and being the Sabbath he said “I wod ’ave woven yer a bit of it had it bin a wark day but I ne’er weave at Sunday.”Returning downstairs Albert, no doubt disappointed, asked him if he remembered the Brontës. “Knew ’em all,” he replied. “I was baptised wi’ old Patrick. My mother used to tell me that when he splashed watter on my face I bawled like a cawf. Aye and I went to school in’t lane there beside churchyard and were taught wi’ Charlotte.”Asked what he thought about her, he said: “Well she was a little bit of a thing, about size o’ six penneth o’ copper. A teeny, little woman wi’ least hands that I’ve ever seen. And when it was said the parson’s Charlotte had written a printed book nobody believed it a first until fine folk in carriages came up cobbles in village street.“Aye and I knew Emily, but I never liked her. She were taller and darker than the others and she would pass yer in street and never look at yer, just as if you were a stone. I used to pass her on’t moor bottom when I was going to Haworth, but she never turned her head sideways. She always seemed to be thinking and muttering to hersel’.“Lass I liked best wer Anne, she allus had a smile and a word for a child or dog. But like ’em all she faded away. Did I know Branwell, ye ask? Aye, I’ve supped ale with him and John Brown in’t Black Bull, aye mony a time. He finished up wild, but everybody liked him. Last time I saw him in’t street his hair were flying and he looked demented. Poor Branwell – his was a wasted life.“Aye, I remember all to the last. I saw Charlotte that day when she came out to be wed in’t church, and she looked like a lily. I saw her carried out of t’old parsonage feet first not long after. And there weren’t many dry eyes in Haworth that day.“Last of all, I used to see old Patrick, lonely and desolate standing up in’t pulpit, while down below, lay his wife and five childer. It was a pathetic sight.”Old Timmy died at his cottage in 1910 and is buried in Haworth churchyard alongside the path that passes through it from the old school in Church Street. (Robin Longbottom)
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by Deborah WeissManchester University PressISBN: 9781526175717November 2024Women and madness in the early Romantic novel returns madness to a central role in feminist literary criticism through an updated exploration of hysteria, melancholia, and love-madness in novels by Mary Wollstonecraft, Eliza Fenwick, Mary Hays, Maria Edgeworth, and Amelia Opie. This book argues that these early Romantic-period novelists revised medical and popular sentimental models for female madness that made inherent female weakness and the aberrant female body responsible for women's mental afflictions. The book explores how the more radical authors - Wollstonecraft, Fenwick and Hays - blamed men and patriarchal structures of control for their characters' hysteria and melancholia, while the more mainstream writers - Edgeworth and Opie - located causality in less gendered and less victimized accounts. Taken as a whole, the book makes a powerful case for focusing on women's mental health in eighteenth- and nineteenth- century literary criticism.
Extensive repair works have been proposed for Oakwell Hall to remedy damage and ensure its longevity.The Grade-I Listed Elizabethan manor house, located to the northwest of Birstall, dates back to 1583 and is set in period gardens within a 110-acre country park. The hall was visited by Charlotte Brontë in the 1830s and was the inspiration behind 'Fieldhead' in her 1849 novel 'Shirley'. It is now a museum furnished as a family home of the 1690s which is owned and run by Kirklees Council.The local authority is seeking Listed Building Consent to carry out repairs to the fabric of the building to ensure it is fit to operate for years to come. The council has appointed AHR Building Consultancy to carry out the works that will “restore damaged and age-related issues” and ensure Oakwell Hall can remain open to the visiting public, according to a supporting statement.Several issues need to be addressed, including those regarding structural movement, water ingress and backlog maintenance issues primarily affecting the external fabric of the building. Some internal areas will also be impacted where either movement has affected the structure due to plumbing leaks, or wear and tear.As a result, works would include the removal of the existing roof to allow for the installation of a bat-friendly, modern breather membrane to shield the building from water ingress. The existing stone slate roof would then be re-laid, and gutters and down pipes replaced. Repairs would also be made to the external stone, existing lead glazing, and defective areas of the underground drainage system.A new, accessible toilet would be installed at ground floor level to the rear of the property, with its walls positioned to limit the impact on the existing historical structure. The existing first floor male and female toilets, which were a later addition, would be fully removed as part of the development.The supporting Design and Access Statement put together by AHR Building Consultancy says: “The proposals detailed in this statement have been developed to minimise the continuing deterioration of the building and to provide restorative repairs to ensure the upkeep of the building is retained.“Our proposals have been developed with a core aim to protect the existing building in character and appearance and with the aim of restorative repairs to the roof and external walls whilst also improving the facilities for visitors through the provision of an accessible toilet at ground floor level.“The works are confined to the building and will therefore have no impact on the wider building’s environment and external grounds.”A target date for a decision to be made was set for Wednesday, (April 8), though this is yet to be made, according to Kirklees’ planning portal. (Abigail Marlow)
Fri 10 April, 11am – 3pmBrontë Event Space at the Old SchoolroomThe Brontës didn’t just write wonderful stories; they also loved to spend time sketching and making amazing, tiny books. They also sewed a lot, but maybe not by choice…Join us to try your hand at one of the Brontës’ other pastimes!
West Lane Baptist Chapel, HaworthThe Brontës created fantastical worlds of Gondal and Angria, drawing inspiration from real life heroes, folktales as well as the wild moors that surrounded their home.Join us as we welcome artists and authors Wendy and Brian Froud to the Brontë Parsonage Museum for a truly magical afternoon.From their work on iconic films such as The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth to their wondrous books on pressed fairies and trolls, we will be discussing the art of world building, creating characters, drawing from nature and finding positivity through creativity.
